Paddy procurement impasse ends

The impasse over the procurement of paddy has ended.

Officials said that an agreement had been reached between the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) and mill owners for the procurement including in Kuttanad and Palakkad. As per the agreement reached, mills would cooperate with the Supplyco for a period of six months.

Earlier, mills decided to keep away from procurement after they failed to reach an agreement with the government over compensation for the procured paddy, which got destroyed in the 2018 floods.

Following this, the government decided to rope in cooperative societies to procure paddy directly from farmers. However, a lack of storage, among other facilities for cooperative societies in the district, resulted in a delay in the procurement.

On Tuesday, representatives of mill owners’ associations met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. As per the direction of the Chief Minister, a group of Ministers later held discussions with the representatives and reached an interim agreement. The Ministers promised the representatives to hold another round of discussions in the presence of Chief Minister in the near future on the issues raised by them.